Lawrence Weiner, BENT TO A STRAIGHT AND NARROW AT A POINT OF PASSAGE

Lawrence Weiner considers himself a sculptor whose medium is language. But, he is widely recognized as a central figure of Conceptual art, a movement that emphasizes the concept, or idea, of a work of art over its material objecthood. In the 1960s, Weiner concluded that the essence of an artwork is textual and its physical construction is not critical to its existence in the world. Here, in the UMFA's Great Hall, Lawrence Weiner's work BENT TO A STRAIGHT AND NARROW AT A POINT OF PASSAGE is realized in large blue vinyl letters, but this artwork can exist in a multiplicity of formats determined by either the artist or the "receiver." Through a creative planning process, UMFA staff collaborated to determine this first iteration of the artwork in the Museum since its acquisition in 2011. In its current location and form, the artwork playfully interacts with the architecture of the space and suggests many different readings.